


for every scare you share

by LittleDragonPrince



Series: love is a tower where all of us can live [6]
Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-01 23:36:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16775194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleDragonPrince/pseuds/LittleDragonPrince
Summary: Pride refused to reply for a moment, taking a long swig of his drink instead. Envy didn’t seem to be in a rush, however, just took another hit off of xer spliff and let the smoke unfurl from xer lips as Pride tried to think of something he could say that would make Envy drop the subject. “Well, I did just get kidnapped, like, not even a month ago,” he settled on saying, “So forgive me! If I’m not in the best mood. I don’t see why it’s any of your business.”“Because we’re friends,” Envy said without hesitation, and Pride couldn’t hide his wince; despite their squabbles in the past, Envy had always looked out for him, and here he was, acting like a child. “And because you only get this squirrelly about your problems when they’re really bothering you, ‘cause otherwise you would have told everyone and their mother what was wrong, like, five seconds after we got you back to the hideout.”Pride scrubbed one hand roughly over his face as his vision started to blur. It made him feel pathetic. “I’m sorry," He blurted out, "You’re right.”xxxpride and gluttony get kidnapped. that's not even the worst part.





	for every scare you share

**Author's Note:**

> I RETITLED THE FIC AND I JUST MADE IT ONE REALLY REALLY LONG CHAPTER INSTEAD OF TWO. I JUST DID THIS WEIRD AND DUMB. THE WHOLE PROCESS
> 
> anyways welcome to this my carnival of pain. this fic took me wayyy longer to write than i expected and WAS way longer than i expected. my brain feels like its melting. please enjoy, let me know what u think, in the comments, or in the discord, yknow the deal by now!
> 
> (cw for violence of the kidnapping variety - ppl get punched and pistol whipped, someone is sniped, yknow, its stuff you'd find in a fahc fic. also, while this fic isnt ABOUT the trauma of the experience, its touched upon - people havin anxiety and feelings about it after its happened, which i know can be just as hard to read about as the trauma itself. just figured i'd give a heads up !!)
> 
> [title from oh klahoma by jack stauber](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3WgzxpjjnE)

Gluttony supposed he should have seen this coming, in the long run.

Even before he'd joined the Seven Deadly Sins, he'd been taken by people, tied up and imprisoned for information, or blackmail, or just to be tortured. It had never particularly bothered him before - getting out was easy enough, he was always underestimated by his captors, and the risk of escape was never nearly enough to dissuade him from breaking out. At best, the kidnappings had been a mild inconvenience It was apart of being in the world of organized crime, of running in the circles he ran in - mob bosses and kingpins alike frequently had it out for him, and his reputation preceded both him and his new team. 

So someone coming after them should have been expected. He just never expected it would be  _ Pride _ they targeted.

In hindsight, though, he was the most obvious victim of them all - Pride, before he began running with the Seven Deadly Sins, was known for being shallow and easy to persuade. Gluttony associated Pride more with his other traits nowadays - like his sweetness, and his desire to make people laugh, and his weird, unique type of honesty - that it slipped his mind that Pride might ever end up in this position. If he'd been more on his toes - Hell, if he'd just been more observant and noticed the people tailing them for _ who knows _ how long, none of this would have happened.

That was all Gluttony could think to himself, hands zip-tied behind his back, slouched in a chair across from a nauseous-looking Pride.

“So this is how this is going to work,” the apparent leader of the men who'd taken them said; he was dressed in a cheap suit clearly meant to look expensive, and pacing back and forth between them with his arms folded behind him. Gluttony tried his best to keep his face neutral, betray only his fury and not his fear, and he  _ especially _ tried his best not to look at Pride, who was, unsurprisingly, handling the whole situation very, very poorly. From the corner of his eyes, Gluttony could see him trembling, usually neat hair a mess around his tear-stained face. It hurt to look at him, and Gluttony knew he wouldn’t be able to keep his poker face up if he made eye contact. “One of you is going to answer my questions, and that person will get to live. The other will die.” He paused dramatically and glanced between them. Gluttony made sure to roll his eyes when their captor was looking his direction. The action didn't seem to phase him at all; he continued without missing a beat, “So it's in your best interest to be the first to speak up.”

Gluttony spared a glance in Pride’s direction, just to see if he looked like he was going to say something in retort - maybe something ditzy or funny or flirty, maybe anything to reassure Gluttony that he wasn't completely shutting down - but he mostly looked terrified out of his mind.  _ That’s okay _ , Gluttony thought to himself, swallowing the knot in his throat and keeping his face straight,  _ I'll be the talkative one this time around. _

“I don't care if you kill me,” he said - it was a sentence he'd had to say before, a sentence he meant sincerely for the most part, “I'm not going to compromise my source of income just for some nobody mob boss like yourself.”

The man narrowed his eyes at Gluttony’s bravado, and Gluttony squared his shoulders, didn't dare break eye contact - not until the sound of Pride stifling a sob drew his eyes in his direction. To his credit, Pride was clearly trying to keep a brave face on, jaw clenched and brow furrowed - it was clear the only reason he  _ hadn't  _ made a quip so far was because his voice would crack if he opened his mouth.

In that split second Gluttony had glanced at Pride, their captor must have seen...  _ something _ on Gluttony’s face, something vulnerable, because he grinned widely and said, “So how about we change the rules?” He took a few steps to stand beside Pride menacingly; Gluttony could practically see Pride biting his tongue to keep from shouting, “ _ You _ answer my questions,” he said, with a nod in Gluttony’s direction. One of his hands came down to rest heavily on Pride’s shoulder, which  _ had _ to hurt, given the ugly angle at which his arm was twisted backwards and his subsequent wince of pain, “Or your friend here dies instead. Does that inspire you to care?”

Gluttony had been grateful for his natural poker face many times in the past, but never like in that moment, as he bit back the rising sense of panic and kept his expression perfectly blank. “I don't care about him either, so go ahead,” he said, not letting his eyes fall to Pride’s face again; he couldn’t risk showing even a hint of fear.

Pride wasn’t making it easy for him, however - as soon as Gluttony finished speaking, he began to stutter and cry, “N, no,” it took all of Gluttony’s willpower not to grimace, “What do you-? No, no, no-,”

Through it all Gluttony managed to keep his expression cold, and the lack of emotion clearly frustrated and surprised their captor; he frowned sharply and made his way across the narrow space to stand beside Gluttony instead. Immediately his mind began to race with plans to escape, ways to snap out of his restraints the way he'd done dozens of times before in situations just like this one, but Pride was a new variable in all of this. There was no guarantee he could get them  _ both _ out alive if he made an impulsive rush for freedom, so he stayed perfectly still even as the man placed a hand on the nape of his neck and sent a shiver of disgust up his spine.

“I'll offer the same deal to you, then,” the man said, and in the periphery of his vision, Gluttony saw him grab something by his belt - a weapon, most likely - as Pride’s face blanched, “though after that display, I don't see why you'd take it.”

There was a long beat of silence - the only noise to be heard was Pride sniffling and gasping - before the man grew impatient. The cold muzzle of a gun was pressed to Gluttony’s temple in a heartbeat. Despite himself, he let out an apprehensive hiss - that seemed to break the spell Pride was under.

“Wait! Don't, don't, wait,” he cried out, twisting forwards in his seat.

_ Goddamnit, _ Gluttony thought to himself, eyes squeezing shut when he couldn't bare to look at Pride’s panicked face any longer. Despite his best efforts to be pissed at his teammate for not getting it, for displaying such raw emotion at the hands of the enemy, all he really felt was contempt for himself for letting this happen in the first place.

The gun fell away from Gluttony’s head, and Pride drew in a deep and shaky breath. “Please, don't hurt him, I'll - what do you wanna know, I-,”

“Pride,” Gluttony said in warning, even when he knew it was a hopeless cause: Pride wasn’t coherent enough to listen to reason, especially reason of the subtle sort.

“I, my team, will you-,” for a second, they locked eyes, and Pride seemed to hesitate.  _ Please _ , Gluttony begged him in his mind,  _ just tell him to kill me.  _ They broke eye contact as quickly as they'd made it, and Pride continued pleading as if he had not paused at all. “What do you want to know? Will you use it to hurt us?”  __

“Pride, you need to stop,” Gluttony tried again, more desperate this time; the gun rattled menacingly by his head, but didn't return to its former position against his temple, “Just. Stop.”

“That isn't relevant to you, no worries,” the man said, and Gluttony clenched his fists behind his back when he heard the smugness in his voice, “but I will promise you this - the easier you make this for me, the easier it'll be for your team in return.”

For a moment Pride seemed to really consider it, eyes cast downwards in thought, and in that moment Gluttony decided  _ fuck it.  _ Clearly all his old techniques for getting through an interrogation weren't going to work, it was time to start winging it.

“He's lying to you,” he blurted, and Pride's eyes flickered down to meet his own and - _ fuck _ , he looked devastated. Over the many years they had known each other, Gluttony had seen Pride in all sorts of states, but he had never seen him look quite this terrified - he only just managed to keep his voice even as he said, “Okay, it's a lie. Just keep your mouth shut.”

“Please,” the man, still pressed dangerously close to Gluttony's side, scoffed. He gesticulated dramatically as he spoke with the hand holding the gun, letting it swing close enough to Gluttony's head that Pride made a choked, anxious sound, “Are you really going to listen to this guy? The guy who'd let you die for his paycheck?”

“Pride-,” he started to say, but then the gun was pressed to his temple again, and his words were drowned out by Pride's shaking, babbling voice.

“You really won't - won't hurt him if I tell you?” Pride said, voice thick with tears, and Gluttony stifled a groan of frustration with a deep sigh, the first show of emotion he'd allowed himself in awhile - something he immediately regretted.

In a flash of quicksilver metal, the gun went from pressed to Gluttony's skull to pointed at Prides lap - his breath caught in his throat despite himself and he held it there, until his chest began to ache, face as bored as possible. Pride's rambling turned to garbled crying in an instance, and the self assured look on their captor's face turned annoyed. Gluttony kept himself calm by imagining caving the guy’s skull in later.

“Are you done?” He deadpanned; the man's face darkened even more.

“You aren't making this very exciting, you know that, right?” he said with a sneer; Gluttony attempted a casual shrug of his shoulders, despite both arms twisted back behind his chair and the icy fear running through his veins.

“Sorry to disappoint,” said Gluttony, and as soon as the last word left his mouth there was an ear-splitting  _ bang _ . Without thinking about it, Gluttony jerked forwards, felt the zip-ties strain but not break around his wrists,  _ shit shit shit shit _ .

Pride was still crying, though, he was still alive - and as the relief from that realization swept over Gluttony, he also realized that the bullet hadn't hit Pride, instead embedding itself into the water-stained floor of the warehouse. With a shaky exhale, Gluttony spoke again, trying to keep his voice level. “What are you attempting to do right now?”

“I already told you,” the man snapped, bringing the gun up to point at Pride again, this time angled towards his head and shoulders. As subtly as he could, Gluttony pulled at his binding again behind his back, out of sight. Pride’s head was tucked down into his chest, shoulders shaking with tears he was obviously trying  _ so hard _ not to shed, and Gluttony’s urge to break free of his zip-ties grew. The only thing that kept him from doing so was the gun, still smoking, leveled somewhere around Pride’s collarbone. Gluttony tore his eyes away from the weapon as their captor continued. “I need you to answer some questions - about where your little team of crooks hides out, and how we can best get in without detection - and then maybe, just  _ maybe, _ I’ll let  _ one _ of you go.”

“And I already told  _ you _ ,” Gluttony said, trying for threatening and calm when he felt anything  _ but _ , “That’s not going to work.”

“Really?” the man sneered as he took a step in Gluttony’s direction menacingly; the gun’s aim dropped slightly with the movement, and Gluttony bit back a noise of relief, “It’s not gonna work? Your teammate here has already given in.”

“He doesn’t know anything,” he said without thinking about it - if he could convince their captor that Pride was useless, that sparing Gluttony was useless, maybe he could get Pride out safely. It was the only plan he had, the only thing he was willing to try so long as that  _ gun  _ was still pointing at Pride, “And I don’t care what you do either way. So you might as well kill us both right now and give it up.”

“One of your  _ own _ teammates doesn’t know  _ anything _ ?” the man spat, “Do you expect me to believe that?”

“You followed us around for weeks - you had to, to pull this off,” said Gluttony, eyes narrowed and voice flat, as if he was talking to someone far stupider than himself. The man took another step in his direction, and the gun finally -  _ finally _ \- dropped back to his side. Gluttony let his hands unclench. “So you saw how dumb he is, right? Or were you not paying attention the whole time you were tailing us? Is that why you had to take  _ both _ of us even though your plan  _ clearly _ only involved taking the most pathetic of the team, because you knew your half-assed threats wouldn’t work on-,”

The next thing Gluttony registered was white hot pain, blossoming through his entire face; he bit into his tongue to keep from shouting hard enough to taste blood. As he blinked the world back into focus, dizzy with pain, he came to the slow, bitter realization that he'd just been hit with the butt of his captor's gun. The man towered over Gluttony, right arm pulled back as if to strike him again, chest heaving with rage. His words had clearly struck a nerve.

“Don't get smart with me,” he growled; Gluttony spat a glob of saliva and blood onto the ground by his feet.

The man glowered at him, but he didn’t hit Gluttony again, instead lowering the gun slowly back down to his side. “If you aren’t going to cooperate, I’m not going to try talking with you,” he turned on his heels before Gluttony could point out that this wasn’t really a  _ conversation, _ people didn't normally get pistol-whipped during those. To Pride, he said, “When I come back, we’ll figure out just exactly how much you don’t know.”

With that, he turned again and left through one of the many arching doorways of the warehouse. He wasn’t leaving them alone, though, of course not - as he left, a pair of men who had been seated on the opposite end of the room stood and crept a little closer, just close enough that Gluttony could see the guns resting heavy in their arms.

Pride, on the other hand, seemed completely oblivious to their presence. He was too busy staring at Gluttony, eyes searching his face for - something. Gluttony finally let himself look back at Pride head-on, taking in every small detail of his appearance to check for any injuries. He looked unharmed, for the most part, aside from a busted lip and an ugly bruise on the right side of his forehead. The makeup he’d been wearing that day was smudged down his cheeks with a combination of sweat and tears, making him look more dirty and tired than Gluttony had ever seen him before. He could only imagine he was just as messy as Pride, if not moreso.

“Are you - are you okay?” asked Pride in an uncharacteristically quiet voice; his throat was raw from screaming, no doubt, “He didn’t h-hit you too hard, did he?”

“No, Pride, he didn’t,” Gluttony said, shifting in his seat in a futile attempt to get comfortable. When he pushed his back flush against the chair, the zip ties digging into his wrists became slightly more bearable, so he resigned himself to having to sit as far back as possible just to alleviate the pain. As he moved back, Pride leaned even further forward, into a position Gluttony knew must have been absolutely agonizing. “Don’t sit like that, you’re hurting your arms,” he admonished with a sigh, and Pride looked startled at the advice for a moment before sitting back again.

“How did you know it -?”

“I’m tied up the exact same way you are.”

Pride didn’t respond to that, just continued to blink tears out of his eyes and stare at Gluttony; he half-expected another question, but Pride was suspiciously silent. After two minutes of dead silence had passed, even Gluttony began to get antsy with the quiet - a feeling that wasn’t helped by the fact that Pride wouldn’t stop  _ looking _ at him like that - so, reluctantly, he spoke again.

“My face is fine, Pride, I already told you.”

When Pride first tried to respond to him, his words were choked out by a dry-heaving sob; for the umpteenth time that day, Gluttony imagined the satisfaction he’d get from killing everyone in this shitty warehouse. “That’s n-not it,” Pride said with a shake of the head, “I-I mean, I’m glad you’re okay, but we’re not… we’re not okay, we’re,” he took a deep breath in an obvious and pointless attempt to steady himself, “We’re going to die. I don’t wanna die.”

“You’re not going to die,” Gluttony said without hesitation, without even having to pause to think the answer through, willing the promise not to feel empty somehow, “Just calm down and let me think.”

There was a long moment where neither said anything, as Gluttony scanned the room for some kind of plan of escape, and then:

“...He said he was - you said -,” Pride mumbled; when Gluttony looked back to him, he was refusing to meet his eyes, “He said he was going to, to kill you, and I, I had to-,”

“Pride,” Gluttony interrupted, even as the dread weighed heavy on him - Pride shouldn’t have  _ had  _ to do anything, Gluttony should have found a way out by now. As much as he wanted to explain that all to Pride, maybe even apologize for failing to do - to do  _ something _ about this earlier, they were still in danger. If the guards watching over them overheard this conversation, everything Gluttony had done so far would have been for nothing. “We are not having this conversation right now. Okay? I need you to let me  _ think _ .”

“Wh-? No! No,” Pride insisted, to Gluttony’s dismay- he hadn’t expected Pride to have the energy to be so angry at him, “You need to explain this to me right now, because, because we might not get another chance to-,”

“For the last time,” Gluttony said before Pride could begin crying again - that was clearly where the conversation was heading, the way his voice kept catching in his throat, “You’re going to be fine. Stop crying, stop talking, just - stop. Can you do that for me?”

To be fair to Pride, he seemed to at least try to heed Gluttony’s words, but once he was worked up he always had a hard time calming down. There was a part of Gluttony that wanted to try to soothe him, but even in normal circumstances he wasn’t good at comforting people. He had to settle for sitting in the almost-silence, the only sound to keep him company being Pride’s muffled crying, thinking up any possible way to keep his promise to Pride and get him out alive.

**xxx**

Pride wasn’t sure how long they’d been trapped there. Time passed far too slowly, so that every minute felt like an hour; by the time their captor returned to continue his interrogations, it was if months had gone by since they’d been taken that morning. The downside was that Pride felt as tired as he would have if he hadn’t slept in months, sore and sick to his stomach with hunger, unable to sit upright against the bone-deep ache he was feeling. 

The upside was that Pride had plenty of time to  _ think, _ so by the time their captor returned, both many months and just a few hours later, Pride was prepared for whatever he might throw at him.

“Now,” he said from where stood behind Gluttony, leering down at Pride; the gun he had held prior was tucked back into his waistband, which Pride counted as a small mercy, “Let’s pick up where we left off. Why don’t you tell me where your hideout is? I know you have one.”

Pride swallowed the knot in his throat, biting his tongue to keep from replying instinctively, and looked to Gluttony for some kind of hint of what to do. A mottled, ugly bruise took up almost a full quarter of his face where he’d been struck, and a line of dried blood started at his temple and ended halfway down his neck - yet despite all of that his expression remained stoic; the only sign he felt anything but bored was the subtle clench of his jaw. For a moment, Pride thought it might be from fear, but Gluttony had never been a fearful person - it was probably from pure rage. Pride wished he could borrow some of that anger, if only to feel a little more brave.

“N...no,” said Pride, ignoring how his voice trembled with the single syllable. The man’s self-assured grin dropped, and Pride felt both a rush of satisfaction and fear, “If I tell you anything, you’re just gonna hurt - hurt everyone else, so I’m not helping you.”

“And if you  _ don’t _ tell me anything,” the man said as he took a few steps forward to stand beside Gluttony, one hand coming up to rest on his shoulder. He didn’t even flinch. “Then  _ he _ gets hurt, right in front of you, so maybe you should reconsider.”

“I’m not going to believe you,” Pride said; he strained forwards in an attempt to puff his chest out and had to stifle a wince of pain at how the zipties dug into his hands, “And I’m not going to help you. So you might as well k-,” the word caught in his throat, but he took a deep breath and tried again, “Just - kill me.”

With a roll of the eyes, the man moved away from Gluttony’s side, coming to stand between the two of them so that Pride could no longer see his face; any of Pride’s bravado drained instantly. “Be smart about this,” he scoffed; he was practically looming over Pride now, and it took all of his willpower not to visibly wince back. “I know you. I know you want to save your skin. Your teammates wouldn’t die for you, so don’t be stupid and die for them.”

“No,” Pride didn’t even have to fake the anger this time as he spoke, “Fuck off. I refuse.”

“God, your  _ friend _ was right,” the man practically spat the words out, as if they disgusted him; something about what Pride said clearly struck a nerve, or maybe he was just sick of neither of them cooperating, “You  _ are  _ an idiot.”

“At least I’m smarter than you-,” Pride retorted, and the moment the last word left his lips, his jaw exploded in pain. His vision blurred and his entire mouth tasted of blood and salt - he’d just been punched, he realized somewhat belatedly. He couldn’t stop himself from crying, felt the tears hot and fresh on his face, but he at least tried to keep quiet as he dug his teeth into his already-bloodied lower lip.

He watched through his blurry eyes as the man reeled back for another hit, but the blow never came. Instead, Pride heard Gluttony call out for the first time in hours. “You call that a punch?”

Their captor spun around to face Gluttony at the sound of his voice, leaving Pride to stare dazedly at his back, wishing more than anything that he could look through him and see Gluttony’s expression. “What was that?”

“I mean, is that the best you can do?” jeered Gluttony, “You’re pathetic.”

“Would you rather I hit you, then?” the man said tensely; Pride could see from the set of his shoulders that he was more than willing to beat Gluttony to death for his backtalk, and it made his blood run cold, “Would that be less  _ pathetic? _ ”

“Go ahead and try,” Gluttony said without a hint of fear, “It won't even hurt.”

The man pulled his arm back, but not in the threat of a punch - no, instead his hand flickered down to his gun, and at the same moment Pride opened his mouth to scream there was a muffled, almost inaudible  _ crack _ and then a beat of silence, where nothing seemed to happen at all.

With a sick, heavy  _ thud, _ the man fell dead to the ground.

There were a few split seconds of complete stillness, and then everything started back up again at once - with a sharp tug of his arms, Gluttony had broken the ties around his wrists and stood to his feet.

“What - why didn't you do that earlier?” Pride yelled in disbelief, the words becoming garbled with tears as both relief and fear hit him in equal measures. Somehow Gluttony seemed to understand him, though, giving a shake of his head in response.

“It wasn't safe before,” he said tersely; it was the most emotion Pride had heard in his voice all day, mouth drawn back in a grimace, “Now gimme a minute.”

He knelt down next to the body for a moment - he didn't have to bother checking if he was dead, the blood pooling beneath his head was enough proof - and stood back up clutching the man's pistol. He tucked the gun into his waistband before ducking behind Pride and his seat; he heard Gluttony's knees hit the concrete floor as he knelt down.

Before Pride could ask what he was doing, he felt a sharp and agonizing pull on his wrists that made him cry out.

“Shit,” Gluttony cursed, and the pain stopped for a moment. Pride wished desperately that he could wipe the tears off his swollen, sticky cheeks, in the hopes of feeling any less disgusting or helpless. “Okay, hold still, I'm just gonna-,”

The tugging started up again, harder this time, and Pride tried to grit his teeth through the pain. It got to be too much, though, it almost felt like his bones might snap, so he pleaded, “Stop, please stop-,”

“Shit,  _ shit _ ,” Gluttony hissed under his breath. The pain stopped again, and Pride gave a gasp of relief, “Alright, uh, it's alright, I'll-,”

The sounds of gunfire and fighting cut him off before he could finish. There was a cacophonous wall of noise getting closer and closer to the room they were sectioned off in. Pride kicked his feet against the ground instinctively, as if he could actually escape the oncoming violence, but all he succeeded in doing was almost tipping his chair back - Gluttony held him steady, however, placing both hands onto the back of the chair until Pride stopped struggling.

“Stay absolutely silent,” he said. Despite everything, Pride felt compelled to follow his orders, clenching his jaw tight. Once he was sure Pride wasn't about to start panicking again, Gluttony stepped out from behind him and drew the gun from his waistband. He stood directly in front of Pride, shoulders squared and gun at the ready, staring down the single entrance to the room they were locked inside as the sounds grew closer and closer.

Eventually, it seemed as if the commotion was right outside the room - there was screaming, and multiple gunshots, and the thumping sounds of bodies collapsing to the ground. It continued for a few miserable seconds, during which Pride could barely breathe, and then stopped all at once. There were voices too muffled to understand, followed by a clattering right at the door - no doubt the deadbolt on the other side being unlocked - at which point Gluttony raised both arms, gun held firmly in his hands.

The door swung open with a bang, and Pride squeezed his eyes shut in anticipation of Gluttony's gun going off - what he heard instead was an unmistakable voice call out, “Oh, thank  _ fuck _ , there you are.”

When Pride looked past Gluttony and across the room, he could see Envy standing in the door, bruised and bloodied and brandishing a gun. “Wrath -  _ Wrath!  _ \- they're in here!”

A moment later, Wrath appeared beside xer, and the sight of her made something in Pride break. All the fight left his muscles, the stress of the day catching up with him, as he slumped forward in his seat and let out a sob. He wanted to speak, to say anything even approaching coherent as an expression of his fear or gratitude or anger, but every word he attempted was so garbled not even he was sure what it was he was trying to say.

At the same moment his mouth stopped working, his ears stopped working, too; there were sounds like the three of them were talking, and then like Gluttony was shouting, and then the next thing Pride knew his wrists were free and he was collapsing onto his knees on the cold, hard floor.

The jolt of pain going up his legs and spine was enough to startle Pride out of his crying, at least enough so that he could clearly hear Wrath speaking to him.

“Hey, hey, you're good now,” her voice was strained, but he could tell she was trying, at least, to sound gentle, “Can you walk?”

Pride didn't respond at first, instead taking a moment to scrub at his face until he could control his breathing better. As he blinked the last of the tears out of his eyes, his own hands came into focus in front of him; the broken zip-ties were still wrapped around his wrists, and beneath them he could see beads of pinkish blood where the plastic had dug in too hard.

“Y-yeah,” he gasped eventually, once he trusted himself to speak without falling into hysterics again. Wrath was stood in front of him, one hand on each of his shoulders to help him stay vertical; he placed his own hands over hers to let her know he could stand up on his own. When he started to move, she let him go but didn't back away, instead hovering in front of him with both palms raised in his direction to catch him if he fell. He didn't even have the energy to be embarrassed.

Pride swayed on his feet for a second once he was standing, but didn't collapse again. His knees felt weak, his arms sore, his face bruised and dirty - he wanted to be relieved, to see the bright side, they'd just been  _ rescued _ , but all he was was tired. Wrath and Envy looked similarly bedraggled, chests still heaving from the fight they'd just waged to get to Pride and Gluttony - and speaking of  _ Gluttony _ , he was - unreadable, head bent and shoulders stiff.

“I wanna go home,” said Pride without thinking.

“Okay,” Envy said; Pride felt a hand come to rest gently on his arm, but he didn’t turn to look in xer direction. He couldn’t bring himself to look away from Gluttony, who was staring down at the floor in an obvious attempt to stare at anything but Pride. “Let's get you home.”

**xxx**

The warehouse was a bittersweet place to be in the days following Pride and Gluttony’s return. There was no denying the air of relief that everyone felt, but it was sullied somewhat by the knowledge that they hadn't gotten back unscathed. The first night after their rescue, nobody had spoken much - Pride had passed out on the common room couch with his head in Lust's lap, and Wrath and Gluttony drank coffee in the kitchen in silence until she'd gone to bed at 2AM with the promise that she, Greed, and Envy were looking into who, exactly, had taken them, and why, and how to prevent it in the future. While Gluttony understood her intent, the words only made him feel worse. He hadn’t been strong enough to fight off their captors when they’d attacked him and Pride, and he hadn’t been strong enough to get him and Pride out of the warehouse on his own. It was the one thing he was good for - his strength, his ability to fight and kill and protect - and he had failed at it when Pride needed him most.

The self-blame was suffocating, kept him up at night, but it wasn’t even the worst part - no, the worst part was how Pride had been avoiding him, ever since they’d been saved. Gluttony would walk into a room, and Pride would turn into a stuttering mess, with his eyes downcast, and make a hasty excuse to leave before fleeing. As he would leave, everyone else in the room would shoot a sympathetic look in Gluttony’s direction, but nobody ever approached him about it. He was grateful for that, at the very least - the only person he might consider having this conversation with was Pride, and that  _ clearly _ wasn’t happening any time soon.

It had been three weeks since their return, and Gluttony still hadn’t said more than a handful words to any of his teammates - and zero words to Pride, who was still steadfastly avoiding him at every turn. The atmosphere of the hideout had gone from relieved to painfully tense to awkward but functional for everyone  _ but _ Gluttony, which was how he found himself standing, somewhat nervously, outside of Sloth’s room, one hand raised in a knock he couldn’t quite bring himself to finish. Talking about his feelings was never easy for him, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and, well, Sloth’s room was the closest to his own.

Despite wanting to share his thoughts with someone,  _ anyone, _ a sense of anxiety gnawed at the back of his mind that talking to Sloth would be a mistake - he was just beginning to consider turning around and going back to his room without bothering them when the door swung open wide to reveal them standing there, trademark mask tucked under their chin and glaring directly at Gluttony.

“Uh,” he stammered, caught off guard, “Hi.”

“Hi,” Sloth said, completely unfazed - Gluttony wouldn’t expect any less from them, “Are you coming in or do you want to stand outside my bedroom silently some more?”

“Uh,” said Gluttony, again, at a loss for a words; with a slight shake of his head, he composed himself enough to take a step into the threshold of Sloth’s room, “Yeah. Thanks. How did you know I was here?”

Sloth didn’t answer until they had closed their door behind both themself and Gluttony. Once the door had clicked shut, they turned and gestured to a chair for Gluttony to sit in; he stayed standing, just a few feet from the door. “I could sense your presence,” they deadpanned as they took a seat on their bed, apparently undeterred by Gluttony’s refusal to move an inch. For a moment, neither spoke, and then Sloth gave a semi-fond eye roll and sighed, “Also, I heard your door open and close down the hall, like, ten minutes ago, but I didn’t hear you finish walking down the hallway, so. I figured you had to be out there still.”

“Right. Okay. That makes sense,” he said, mostly to himself, though Sloth nodded along as if the words were directed to them, “Well. Can you  _ sense  _ why I’m here, too, or do I need to explain that.”

“I can intuit,” they said, voice still completely, characteristically flat, and Gluttony couldn’t help the rush of relief. Talking to Sloth was always… easier, for him. Where most of the other Seven Deadly Sins members were loud and emotive and outgoing, Sloth’s energy had always been easier to match. The two could spend hours sitting side by side without feeling compelled to say a single word, and for the first tumultuous ten months of his partnership with the team, Sloth had been someone to lean on.

“Right,” echoed Gluttony, crossing his arms defensively over his chest just so he’d have something to do with his arms. For a moment he wasn’t sure what to say next, fidgeting in place, until he blurted out, “It’s about Pride.”

“With you, it’s  _ always _ about Pride.”

For a moment, Gluttony wanted to retort, to fight back against that assertion, but Sloth leveled an icy  _ look _ at him over their glasses and continued without hesitation. “You know I’m right. Nobody is closer to Pride than you are, but he’s  _ hard _ to be close to.”

“Fine,” Gluttony snapped, and this time, when Sloth rolled their eyes, it was far less fond, “But. I don’t know. I’m not...” he took a deep breath to gather his thoughts and steady his nerves, eyes screwed shut so he wouldn’t have to look Sloth in the face as he said, “I’m not sure Pride is close to  _ me, _ anymore.”

“He’s been avoiding you, I know,” said Sloth; at the lack of judgement or, worse, pity in their voice, Gluttony allowed his eyes to open yet again. They weren’t looking back at him, however, instead picking at their navy blue manicure with a kind of practiced nonchalance, “Ever since we got you back from the Skulls.”

Gluttony couldn’t help but flinch at Sloth's word choice, a fact they noticed. In lieu of asking, however, they merely raised their brows at him until he huffed and said, “I shouldn't have needed you guys to come. I should have gotten Pride out on my own.”

“That would have been risky and stupid,” Sloth said bluntly, “So I'm glad you didn't.” They stopped and narrowed their eyes in thought, “Is… is that what this is about, actually?”

“It's why Pride is avoiding me,” replied Gluttony, and, to his surprise, the words seemed to confuse Sloth; he did his best to plow on, however. “I was too weak to do my  _ job. _ What good am I to any of you, to  _ Pride _ , if I can't keep him safe, huh? He doesn't trust me to be strong anymore. I can't blame him.”

“...That doesn't sound like him,” Sloth said after a long moment of consideration, “That sounds like you. Like you don't trust yourself to be strong.”

“Then why is he so upset with me?” Gluttony snapped; it was the first time all month that he let himself be loud, and upset, and the relief was palpable, a physical weight off his shoulders, “Why does he look so uncomfortable whenever I walk into a room? He’s - he’s never acted like this before,  _ never _ , I’ve known him for years now and he’s - usually he’s the one pissing me off, y’know, but now I’ve…” he cut himself off with a groan, scrubbing his face with his hands - sure, it was a relief to talk about his feelings, but it was also  _ hard _ .

“I can’t tell you why he’s acting like this,” Sloth confessed, and while it still made Gluttony groan, yet again, in frustration, he knew deep down it was true and he shouldn’t have expected otherwise, “I wasn't there. Neither of you have told us what happened.”

“Right… we, uh,” Gluttony stopped and took a deep breath in to steel himself, “We got taken in the morning. Early morning. Pride’s sleep schedule is… insane, and as you know, my body has never required sleep to function,” (this comment earned Gluttony a snort of laughter, but Sloth didn’t interrupt any further) “It was about… six, I guess, who knows, and Pride really wanted to see if we could sneak into the movie theater before it opened. I don’t know why, but… he -,” Gluttony shook his head to clear his thoughts; reminiscing about Pride only made his chest ache more, he couldn’t dwell on it, “We were the only people on the street, or I thought so at least. It was only just getting light out and I wasn’t paying attention.

“When they grabbed us - they, I couldn’t - I didn’t stop them before they got to…” with a sigh he threaded his fingers through his hair; he wanted to keep composure. He  _ needed _ to. While he paused to steel himself, Sloth remained gratefully, miraculously silent, expression unreadable even with the mask pulled down around their neck, “They got him first, and as soon as they had him, I - I completely froze, because I knew if I fucked up then it could get him killed and I. I can’t stop thinking about...”

Gluttony stopped speaking for good then, didn’t trust himself to continue. Fortunately, it seemed Sloth had heard enough to understand what he meant; they heaved a sigh and leaned forward onto their knees, saying bluntly, “I stand by what I said: that sounds like a you-problem. I don’t think that’s why Pride’s upset with you…” they paused and let their eyes fall briefly to the floor, their face wrinkled subtly in thought, “But he is…  _ clearly _ upset over  _ something _ , so-,”

“So,” Gluttony was unable to keep his frustration out of his voice, though it wasn’t Sloth he was frustrated with, “What should I do?”

“Fuck if I know,” said Sloth with the hint of a laugh. Gluttony had the feeling they weren't really amused; the expression on their face was bitter, instead, “Talk to him about it. Or, I'unno, give him some space? You'll make things up to him somehow, you always do.”

Gluttony opened his mouth to retort, but couldn't think of a reply - he hadn't come here for advice after all, he just needed someone to unload his feelings onto, and Sloth had been that person. And he  _ did _ feel better, even if only marginally so. “Right,” he sighed, “Thanks.”

“No problem. Now,” Sloth said, and the smile on their face was genuine, “I'm gonna take a nap, so get the Hell out of my room.”

**xxx**

Pride had always been good at reading other people, and there was nobody he could read better than the members of his team. He could always tell when Wrath was in a bad mood specifically because she’d just lost in Mario Kart, or when the only reason Sloth hadn’t gone back to their room for the nap they so desperately wanted was because they were trying to win some silent argument with Envy, or when Lust was feeling guilty about accidentally eating somebody else’s food in the fridge. He’d spent years living in almost-too-close-quarters with six other people, it was only natural he’d learn their quirks and their habits.

That was how Pride knew that Envy was trying desperately to take his mind off of things, and had been doing so for three weeks.

“What do you think of this shade?” Envy said, holding up a tube of jewel green lipstick, “It’s fun, and pretty, but like… is it wearable?”

Staring down at Envy’s hand, Pride tried to will himself to have an opinion, to care even a little about any of the makeup surrounding them, but all he wanted to do was go back to the warehouse and curl up in his room and sleep the next few months away. He appreciated Envy’s efforts, though, and decided to play along, bringing one hand up to tap thoughtfully at his chin. “I dunno,” he sing-songed as he plucked the lipstick out of Envy’s hands, “It is nice… I’d have to go with a very understated eye look but I think I could make it work.”

Envy scoffed fondly. “Well, of course  _ you _ could,” xe laughed, taking the tester lipstick tube back and putting it in its place before scanning the rows and rows of makeup boxes, “But you can pull off most things. Now where the fuck is that specific shade? Is it sold out?”

“What, you’re gonna buy it?” Pride asked, and he didn’t even have to feign the surprise in his voice - green had never been Envy's color, ironically enough.

“I'm gonna shoplift it,” xe said under xer breath, and then sighed, “I guess I gotta just settle for taking the tester one, though.”

“What - why?” Pride snapped and, without thinking, whipped around to check if anyone had heard Envy say that. It was a fairly new habit of his, being on edge in public, looking over his shoulder and counting every other body in the room, and the realization hit him like a punch to the gut. No longer in the mood to even pretend to be interested, Pride glowered down at Envy, “You don’t need it.”

For a moment, Envy looked hurt, and Pride willfully bit back the urge to apologize. The pained look faded from xer face after a tense and quiet moment, replaced by an expression Pride couldn’t quite name, somewhere between dread and understanding. Xe sighed, and Pride began to prepare himself for the worst, for the conversation he’d been avoiding all month.

“Do you wanna go get some Dunkin Donuts?”

The question took him by surprise, and it must have shown on his face, because Envy gave another sigh and said, “You clearly aren’t actually, like, interested at all in the makeup here. And… I think we should talk, and I think you’d be more - well, comfortable, I guess, talking somewhere that,” Envy took a moment to gesture vaguely around them, to the strangers bustling through the aisles of the Sephora, “...isn’t here?”

_ Of course _ , Pride thought bitterly. Of course Envy thought they should talk. On the one hand, he didn’t want to talk about it, or even think about it, just wanted to keep avoiding the problem until - well, probably until he died. That was his plan, at the very least. On the other hand, however, his plan hadn’t been working. It was the only thing he could think about, and the person who he’d usually use as a shoulder to cry on…

“Fine,” Pride snapped, but even he could tell there wasn’t any fight in it, “I’m only going so I can get a drink, though.”

A few minutes later, they were sitting together on the warehouse fire escape, Pride clutching his raspberry iced tea close to his chest. Envy was smoking a spliff with the type of focus that made it clear xe was stalling, but Pride didn’t mind - he was stalling, too, taking small sips of his drink and staring down into the alleyway they were perched above. Eventually, despite Pride’s silent pleas, Envy broke the silence.

“So,” xe said, drawing the one syllable out; Pride’s eyes flickered over to xer to find xe was avoiding eye contact, “What’s wrong?”

“Why does anything need to be wrong, huh,” said Pride without conviction. Envy didn’t respond right away, instead taking a sip of xer own drink - iced caramel coffee, the only thing xe ever got from Dunkin Donuts, “Things can be fine.”

“No, they can’t,” Envy said, and when xe turned to face Pride he dropped his gaze back down to the dirty street below, “Not when you’re telling me not to steal things just because I don’t  _ need  _ them. I’ve seen you take shit you don’t even want, let alone need, just because Greed told you not to.”

Pride frowned and refused to reply for a moment, taking a long swig of his drink instead. Envy didn’t seem to be in a rush, however, just took another hit off of xer spliff and let the smoke unfurl from xer lips as Pride tried to think of something he could say that would make Envy drop the subject. “Well, I did just get kidnapped, like, not even a month ago,” he settled on saying, “So forgive me! If I’m not in the best mood. I don’t see why it’s any of your business.”

“Because we’re friends,” Envy said without hesitation, and Pride couldn’t hide his wince; despite their squabbles in the past, Envy had always looked out for him, and here he was, acting like a child. “And because you only get this squirrelly about your problems when they’re  _ really _ bothering you, ‘cause otherwise you would have told everyone and their mother what was wrong, like, five seconds after we got you back to the hideout.”

“Right,” said Pride as he willed himself not to cry. He scrubbed one hand roughly over his face as his vision started to blur. It made him feel pathetic, like  _ the most pathetic of the team _ \- before his mind could go down that line of thinking he blurted out, “I’m sorry. You’re right.”

There was a long pause where neither spoke, and Pride began to wonder if his words had surprised Envy, knocked xer off xer balance. A part of him hoped they had, just so the playing field felt a little more even - he’d been off-center for weeks. Instead of a verbal response, Envy moved xer hand into Pride’s peripheral vision, xer spliff clearly on offer, and Pride took it from xer without a moment’s thought. “Do you wanna talk about the kidnapping?” xe asked as he took a long and grateful drag from the cigarette, “Because… you can. You can talk to me about anything, y’know, if… if you’re upset and it’ll help. Talking about it usually… you like to talk things out with Gluttony at -,”

“ _ Don’t _ mention him to me,” Pride snapped; his eyes began to burn with tears again, but he ignored it, plowing on, “He hates me. I don’t know what I did but he hates me now.”

“He - what?” said Envy with audible confusion, “That… that doesn’t sound right.”

“Well, it’s true!” when Pride spoke, his voice wavered with what he pretended was anger. He turned to glare at Envy, dropping the spliff from his hand; xe didn’t look annoyed at the waste of weed, however, just stared back at him with a wide-eyed, flustered expression, “He doesn’t care about me anymore.”

Envy opened xer mouth to reply, but then stopped and hesitated, eyes flickering from Pride’s face down to the alleyway. “...I don’t think I understand,” xe said, very slowly, and if Pride wasn’t so focused on not crying he’d feel patronized, “You’re… avoiding Gluttony, aren’t you?”

“You’d avoid him, too!” Pride said, and then hiccupped; he took a moment to try to compose himself, wiping at his nose and eyes desperately. Envy was thankfully silent through the entire display, and with a shuddering breath, Pride continued, “I - I thought he cared about me, I’m so  _ stupid _ , why would he - I thought he was  _ different _ - _ ,” _

It was then Pride’s voice gave out on him, his words choked out by a sob, and it was just so  _ infuriating _ , was he really so stupid that he couldn’t even  _ speak _ anymore, and with a shout he hurled his drink against the brick wall of the building across from them, as hard as he could. The plastic burst open upon impact, sending tea and half-melted ice cubes flying. For just a moment, the despair dissipated, and Pride felt numb, empty - it was the first time he’d ever been grateful to feel empty - and then Envy broke the silence.

“I don’t think you’re stupid,” xe said, xer hands hovering in the space between xerself and Pride as if xe was unsure if xe should reach out and touch him, “But I also… don’t think Gluttony hates you.” Xe paused and tilted xer head at Pride, clearly expecting him to say something, but he didn’t trust himself to speak without breaking down even further. Xe seemed to realize that Pride wasn’t going to talk and sighed softly through xer nose.

“Can you tell me why you think he hates you?” Envy asked, one of xer hands finally coming to rest on Pride’s arm. The touch helped to ground him, at least enough that he could take a shaky inhale, focus on composing himself so he could answer.

“When we were being held hostage, he - the, the guy who was questioning us, he said he was gonna-,” Pride felt his voice catch and had to take a moment, swallowing harshly; Envy didn’t interrupt, and for that he was thankful, “He said he was gonna kill me, and Gluttony told him. To do it. He didn’t even hesitate,” despite his best efforts, Pride felt himself choking up again, “I - I don't know why. I don't know what to do.”

“...I’m sorry,” xe said eventually, after a long moment of thought; xe couldn’t look Pride in the face, but xe did keep xer hand on his shoulder, “I can’t really imagine how that must have felt to hear, and I’m not going to tell you you’re wrong, I mean, I’d be upset, too, but,” xer brow furrowed and xer fingers tightened against his arm, a gesture halfway between nervous and comforting, “I really think you should talk to Gluttony. You don’t have to do it today, obviously, or even this week, but - talk to him.”

“I can’t, Envy, I can’t,” Pride said with a desperate shake of the head, “He’s - what if he just says it again? It’d kill me. I can’t.”

“I don’t think he’ll say it again,” said Envy, cutting Pride’s meltdown off before he could start to cry again, and the confidence in xer voice startled Pride, “When we got to you guys, the - the first thing he did was start yelling at me to give him my knife so he could cut you free… so, I dunno, I won’t tell you what to do, or how to feel, but… I promise if you do talk to him, he won’t say he hates you.”

Pride considered Envy’s words very carefully. Over the past three weeks, the thought that Gluttony hated him, that he would gladly let him die, had consumed him. The notion that maybe he’d misunderstood hadn’t occurred to him, but Envy seemed sure of it, more sure than Envy usually was about most things - though Envy often seemed over-confident, Pride was, again, very good at reading people, so he knew it was usually an act. The way xe was looking at him now, however, showed no sign of doubt, and it made Pride inclined to believe xer when xe said he was wrong.

Still, anxiety gnawed at him. “What if he  _ does _ though?” he asked in a murmur, afraid that speaking too loud might make his voice waver or crack, “What if he does hate me?”

“Then I’ll kick his ass,” Envy said without missing a beat, and the words managed to shock a laugh out of Pride, his first laugh in nearly a month. A proud smile split Envy’s face, and with an exaggerated grunt of effort, xe heaved xerself up onto xer feet. When xe offered a hand to Pride to help him stand, he only paused for a moment before taking it.

“You sure about that?” Pride said once he was standing, looking at Envy with a smile he hoped wasn't completely insincere, “He's almost twice your size.”

“Yeah, I might be at a disadvantage,” Envy said with a shrug, “But I'll manage. For you. Now c'mon, let's go back to your room, we can smoke some more and put on a movie.”

While there was a part of Pride that wanted to say no, to continue on with his plan of ignoring the problem and festering in his bad mood alone, another part of him could admit that Envy was right. Isolating himself further, as tempting as it was, wouldn’t make him feel better, but there was a chance that being with Envy might - Hell, even this short conversation had lifted some of the weight off of his shoulders. With another laugh, this one softer and more real, Pride took Envy’s proffered hand and let xer lead him down the fire escape, back into the warehouse, into the safety of his room.

**xxx**

Pride decided he wasn’t going to confront Gluttony out of  _ principle _ , not fear. Whenever the thought of talking to Gluttony again crossed his mind and his chest tightened painfully, he reminded himself that he didn’t  _ have _ to, it was fine if he kept avoiding the issue a little while longer. It was Gluttony’s responsibility to apologize to  _ him, _ after all, not the other way around. Until Gluttony sought him out, Pride could continue with his life as usual, spending every day getting high with Envy and Lust, playing the Wii, and pretending nothing was wrong.

Pride assumed that this plan of action (or inaction) would give him at least a month more to recuperate and ignore the situation, because Gluttony had never been known for his willingness to start emotional conversations, but it seemed his bad luck didn’t want to end. Only nine days after his conversation with Envy, Gluttony found him in the warehouse living room, curled up on the couch and scrolling apathetically through his phone. He announced himself with an uncharacteristically timid knock on the doorframe; it took all of Pride’s willpower not to instantly bolt from the room. Instead he stared up at Gluttony, no doubt wide-eyed and frightened-looking, while Gluttony stared back. For a long and agonizing moment, neither spoke. Eventually Gluttony cleared his throat into his fist.

“Hey,” he said; Pride had to marvel at his ability to make even the single syllable sound stilted, “Can we...talk?”

“Sure,” said Pride in what he hoped was a casual tone of voice; he unfolded his legs from under him and gestured to the futon across from him. To his surprise, Gluttony took the offered seat without much hesitation at all.

Once he was sitting - ramrod straight and facing Pride head-on - he spoke again, still sounding painfully awkward. “Look. I… need to say sorry,” he said, and the words filled Pride with equal parts shock and relief.

_ Alright _ , Pride thought to himself,  _ This is it. He’s going to finally explain himself. _

“I never meant for us to… I mean,” Gluttony paused to think, chewing on his bottom lip. He was still facing Pride, but his eyes were pointed towards the floor, “I’m sorry. That I didn’t notice the Skulls were following us. I should have seen the attack coming, I should have  _ known _ you… you were a target, and I should have… found some way to stop it, and - I’m, I’m sorry I didn’t. I understand why you’re upset - or angry, I guess, with me. I’d be angry, too.”

It was the last thing Pride had ever expected Gluttony to say. Any relief he’d felt was washed away by pure confusion. Gluttony was fidgeting with his hands, still refusing to make eye contact, and without meaning to Pride barked out a disbelieving laugh. The sound made Gluttony’s head snap up, eyes blown wide.

“That’s,” Pride said with a shake of his head, “That’s not at  _ all _ what I thought you needed to apologize for, holy shit.”

Gluttony’s filtered through so many different expressions so rapidly, Pride didn’t have any time to figure out how he was feeling. His face crumpled, and then his brow furrowed, mouth dropped open and dumbfounded - finally, he schooled his expression into something close to neutral, though his eyes were still narrow and perplexed.

“I’m... sorry, what?” said Gluttony. While before he’d been avoiding looking at Pride at all costs, now he was staring directly into Pride’s eyes, as if hoping he might find the answer to his confusion there.

For what it was worth, Pride felt just as baffled as Gluttony. “That’s not what I was upset about, like, at  _ all _ ,” he said; he couldn’t help but scoff out a tired, somewhat nervous laugh, “I - I thought you were going to say sorry for - y’know - saying you wouldn’t care if I was killed right in front of you.”

There was a beat of silence, as Gluttony blinked once, and then twice, and then he sneered, “Are you fucking kidding me?” The anger in his voice sent a jolt of something between fear and indignation through Pride, stunned him speechless. Gluttony didn’t notice his shock, or at the very least didn’t care - it was like a dam had broken. “This - this  _ whole _ time,  _ that’s _ what you were mad about? Fucking - you were throwing a tantrum over that?”

“Excuse me?” said Pride, voice almost raised into a shout, “A  _ tantrum? _ You think this is a tantrum?”

“Well, what do you call giving me the silent treatment for over a month?” Gluttony shot back; before Pride even had a chance to respond, he rolled his eyes and continued, “God, I should have known you were pissy about something stupid, this is so like you -,”

“I am not stupid!” Pride spat. He could feel himself shaking with anger, could hear the trembling in his voice as he tried to hold back from screaming. Gluttony’s expression was equally dark, his nervous, ramrod posture now slouched forward, but no less tense. Somewhere, beneath the rage, Pride could tell this conversation was spiralling wildly out of control, that he should try to reign himself in, but the disgusted look on Gluttony’s face made doing so impossible, “ _ This _ is not stupid, I deserve an apology from you.”

“I just gave you one,” Gluttony said, “I’m not saying sorry again just for you to reject it -  _ again _ .”

“You can’t apologize for the wrong thing and then demand me to accept it!”

“ _ You _ can’t mock my apology and then play the victim,” Gluttony said without missing a beat; it took Pride aback. He hadn’t meant to mock Gluttony’s apology - he’d just been surprised - but before he could explain himself Gluttony rolled his eyes again and said, “Jesus, how pathetic can you get -,”

As soon as the word left Gluttony’s mouth -  _ pathetic _ \- Pride felt his stomach drop. Any desire to continue arguing disappeared, replaced by nausea.  _ I need to get out of here, _ Pride thought to himself, aware that if he didn’t it wouldn’t be long before he started crying, which was the last thing he wanted to do in front of Gluttony.

Gluttony was still talking, but Pride wasn’t registering anything he was saying - he couldn’t hear anything over the mounting pressure in his chest. He took a deep breath to steady his nerves, shoulders squared, and spoke over Gluttony. “We wouldn’t even be having this argument if we hadn’t been taken in the first place.”

Gluttony stopped short, and in the resulting silence Pride found the courage to continue, “If - if you had been paying attention, we - none of this would have happened, we would both be fine.”

“So you  _ do _ blame me?” Gluttony said, and Pride could hear his voice almost breaking; guilt rushed through him, but he tried to swallow it back down, “This whole thing, it’s my fault?”

“Isn’t that what you wanted me to say?” Pride snapped back, “So you could keep pitying yourself over the bad thing that happened to  _ me- _ ,”

“I was there, too, it happened to me, too-,”

“But you could have broken out any time you wanted!” said Pride - he was yelling now, his voice rough with tears, but he didn’t let himself start crying in earnest, “You’ve done it before, so why didn’t you then? Why didn’t you leave me behind, if you’re so much  _ stronger _ than me?”

All at once, Gluttony rushed to his feet, and the sudden movement, the presence looming over him - before Pride could think twice, he felt himself flinch backwards, eyes squeezed shut. As soon as he realized what he’d done, he pried his eyes open. Too embarrassed to look Gluttony in the face, he stared at his hands, clenched into fists at his side.

“You… are impossible,” Gluttony said, and though Pride steadfastly refused to look up, he could hear the tightness in his voice, could picture his shoulders heaving, “I - I can’t be around you anymore. It’s pointless.”

With that, Gluttony turned and left - Pride didn’t bother trying to stop him, instead sitting stock-still and staring at the empty futon Gluttony had left behind. It wasn’t until he heard the door to the living room slam shut that he let himself crumple, arms wrapped tight around himself. The anger quickly gave way to guilt, which gave way to the familiar, empty pit inside his chest.

**xxx**

Gluttony left the hideout shortly after his argument with Pride came to an end. He wasn’t subtle on his way out, storming through the kitchen and out one of the back entrances, which meant it was nearly impossible for the rest of the team to  _ not _ know about their falling out. Within five minutes of Gluttony running off, Lust wandered into the living room where Pride was still sulking, pity clear as day on his face; Pride didn’t have to energy to feel offended. He also didn’t have the energy to explain what had happened to Lust, but he didn’t seem to mind. The two sat together in the living room, watching various cartoons on Netflix until Pride drifted to sleep, clutching a couch cushion to his chest.

The next few days passed without any sign of Gluttony returning. At first, Pride tried to have a brave face about the situation, spending time with the team as if nothing had happened. The longer Gluttony was gone, however, the less Pride felt inclined to pretend he was fine. It had been his plan to welcome Gluttony back with open arms, a kind of half-hearted olive branch. He would be willing to act like he wasn’t still upset if Gluttony would agree to act like he didn’t hate Pride’s guts - it seemed like a fair trade.

But two weeks went by, Gluttony stayed gone, and Pride’s urge to reconcile vanished with him. Instead of spending time with the team, joining them for dinners or games of pool and Wii Sports, Pride retreated into his room. Wrath visited every other day, bringing with her bottles of water and Advil and bags of chips for him to eat. She usually left as quickly as she came, aware of the fact that Pride wasn’t in the mood for friendly conversation, and for that he was grateful. When she wasn’t around to give him the bare necessities, he was either asleep or wishing he was asleep, tossing and turning in his sweat-soaked bed sheets and watching the lowest rated movies he could find on his phone.

This routine was eventually broken by Envy and Lust, of all people. It was two in the afternoon, almost three weeks after Gluttony had disappeared, and Pride was just waking up from a nap when there was a knock on his door.

“What is it,” He barely moved a muscle as he called out; if he’d been more conscious, the hoarseness in his voice would have made him flinch.

“It’s me,” came Envy’s reply. Xe sounded nervous, which wasn’t out of character for xer. There was a pause, and then the sound of his door creaking open slightly. With a huff, he poked his head out from under his blanket - a sliver of Envy’s face was visible in the doorway. “And, uh, Lust. Can we come in?”

Pride managed an eye roll, despite his exhaustion. “What is it you want?” he asked; without answering his question, Envy pushed the door open fully and strode into his room, Lust trailing close behind. With another, more deliberate eye roll, Pride pushed himself up onto his elbows and glared as best as he could through his bleary vision. Without his contacts in, however, he couldn’t make out the expressions on either of their faces, could only see the items held in their hands - Lust was struggling to carry three ceramic mugs, whereas Envy had a pile of something mint-colored in xer hands.

“What do you want?” Pride asked again, sounding significantly less tired and more annoyed than before. 

“We brought cheesecake tea and facemasks,” Lust said, making a beeline for Pride’s bedside table to place the mugs down. He was finally close enough for Pride to be able to make out his facial expression - his brow was furrowed, and the wan smile on his face didn’t reach his eyes. “We, we thought you might be lonely. Could be nice to… um… unwind with us and some self-care, y’know?”

“That’s nice of you,” Pride said, completely unconvincingly. Objectively he knew Lust and Envy were being good friends, but the hollow, bitter feeling in his chest made the gesture seem cruel. He just wanted to be left alone to wallow - he didn’t need his teammates looking down on him for that. “But I’m fine on my own. Please leave.”

For a moment, it almost seemed as if they would respect Pride’s request, but then Envy took a step forward and said, “Are you… sure you’re doing alright?”

“Yes,” Pride said, even as his voice wavered, “I don’t need your pity.”

“It’s not pity,” Lust sat down at the foot of the bed as he spoke; Pride jerked his legs away from him with a scowl, “It’s concern. We’re your friends, and we’re worried about you.”

“Well,  _ don’t _ be.”

“Look,” Envy sighed, sounding far more exasperated than xe had any right to be, “You have every right to be… hurt, right now, but… I know you. Pretty well, I’d say. And… isolating yourself like this isn’t good for you.”

“I don’t care if it’s not  _ ‘good’  _ for me,” Pride spat, sitting up fully so he could face both Envy and Lust as he spoke. A part of him wanted to throw the mugs of tea off of the bedside table and tell them to get the fuck out of his room, but another part of him knew that was a terrible idea, knew that he’d already ruined one friendship, he didn’t need to ruin two more. He could feel angry tears burning his eyes as he continued. “I’m sad. And I’m tired. And you being here is only making me feel worse. So please, _ please, _ I’m only gonna ask nicely one more time.  _ Leave _ .”

The two exchanged a glance, but when Lust opened his mouth to answer, Envy held up a hand to interrupt him. Lust’s mouth shut hesitantly, and once it was clear he wasn’t going to try speaking again, Envy huffed another, softer sigh.

“We just want to help,” xe said, arms folded loosely over xer chest, “But if this… isn’t helping. And you seriously want us to leave. We will.”

Pride balled his hands into fists in the blanket just to keep his hands from visibly shaking. “Yes,” he said through gritted teeth, “I need you both to go away.”

“...Okay,” Envy said, and then xe gestured at Lust for him to stand. He did, albeit awkwardly, and as he moved to grab the mugs from the bedside table again Envy said, “We’ll leave the tea for you here, in case you still want it. And…” xe paused, eyes flickering anxiously away from Pride’s face. “If you need anything, you know my room’s just down the hall, right?”

“I know,” Pride snapped, “Of course I know.” He hadn’t meant the words to come out so harshly - or, well, he  _ had, _ but he hadn’t meant for Envy’s face to shutter close, clearly hurt but pretending otherwise. Pride glanced over to the tea Lust had left for him on the bedside table, and stifled a sigh. “Thank you, though,” he forced himself to say, despite the trembling in his voice, “For trying.”

The way Envy’s expression softened meant Pride  _ must _ have sounded sincere; he couldn’t help but sigh a breath of relief. “We’ll get out of your room now,” Envy said as xe ran xer hand through xer hair, “Just - feel free to come get someone if you need someone.”

Pride didn’t bother responding verbally, just flopped back into bed, and with that, Lust and Envy were gone. He did eventually drink the tea that they had brought him - it was his favorite, after all, it’d be a waste not to. He spent the rest of the evening falling in and out of sleep, using his moments of feverish consciousness to scroll through his text history with Envy, finger always hovering over the keyboard but never sending a message.

The very next day, there was another knock at his door - sharper than before, far less nervous. Pride squinted groggily at his phone screen to see that it was half-past noon. This was usually around the time Wrath would arrive to his room to give him something to eat, and that epiphany was enough to prompt his stomach growling.

“Come on in!” he called out, and then the door swung up open to reveal none other than... Sloth.

“Hey, moron,” they said as Pride let out a loud and involuntary groan of pure rage, “Were you expecting me?”

“ _ No _ ,” Pride all but wailed, drawing the single word out for as long as he could until he ran out of breath. His yelling had no effect on Sloth, however, who simply stood and stared apathetically at him. When it became apparent that he couldn’t make them disappear purely by complaining, Pride sat up, ramrod straight in bed, and huffed. “Why are you here?”

“I’m here,” Sloth moved over to Pride’s bedside but, unlike Lust, did not take a seat - instead they preferred to stay standing, arms crossed and expression blank, almost cold, “because it’s been two whole months, this lover’s spat between you and Gluttony should be  _ over _ by now.”

“That’s not my fault!” Pride snapped, “And I don’t need you to harass me over this, okay, Gluttony already said enough.”

“I know. I heard,” Sloth said, which Pride genuinely hadn’t expected. The surprise must have been clear on his face, because they sighed through their nose and explained, “It’s not like either of you were being quiet. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, if you’re worried about that, but - I was passing through the hall. So I heard what happened.”

“Really?” said Pride with a sneer, jerking his head to one side to glare up at Sloth. He was hyper-aware of the fact he had no makeup on, no colored contacts in, not to mention the state of his  _ roots _ , but he was trying to battle through that anxiety to appear unbothered. “So, according to you, what happened? Exactly?”

“Well, first off, you’re right, Gluttony did tear into you, pretty hard,” they shrugged, and the nonchalance did nothing to help Pride’s growing anger, “But then you did that thing that you always do when your feelings are hurt - really, genuinely hurt - and you said the absolute cruelest thing you could think of so Gluttony would back off, and you could leave feelin’ like you’d had the last word.”

“I don’t do that!”

Sloth rolled their eyes. “Really? So you do blame Gluttony for you getting kidnapped? You  _ meant _ that?”

Pride opened his mouth to defend himself, to instinctively reply  _ of course I did _ but then couldn’t bring himself to say it. It would be a lie, and a fragrant one at that, one which Sloth was sure to not believe. “...No. I don’t blame him,” he admitted, letting the fight drain from his body, “I was just… mad.”

“I know you were,” Sloth said, and when Pride chanced a glance in their direction, he noticed their face had relaxed slightly, less judgemental than before, “That’s why  _ I’m _ the one who’s here to snap you outta this funk. There’s nothing you can say to me that’ll make me leave you alone. One of the benefits of having no emotions, I guess.”

“You wanna bet?” Pride said, half as a threat and half as a joke. Sloth seemed neither intimidated nor amused in the slightest, however, so Pride gave up on resisting and huffed. “Fine. Let’s… fucking talk about it, I guess.”

At long last, Sloth took a seat. Instead of perching themself nervously on the edge of the bed, however, they sat opposite Pride, facing him head on with their legs folded in front of them. It was a subtle way to force Pride to pay attention to the conversation, and if Pride was less pissed off, he’d be a little impressed.

“So… Gluttony apologized to you,” Sloth said, as if they were explaining something very obvious to him. It was more than a little patronizing, but Pride already knew yelling at Sloth wouldn’t get him anywhere, wouldn’t make this conversation go any quicker, so he settled for rolling his eyes instead.

“Yeah, for the  _ wrong thing, _ ” shot back Pride. Sloth’s eyebrows rose, and then furrowed back down in confusion - it was the most emotion they’d shown on their face since arriving in Pride’s room, and he latched onto the reaction, “Something that I never even  _ considered _ a problem!”

“That’s…” Sloth paused and pressed one fist to their mouth in thought, before saying, voice slow and deliberate, “Okay, that doesn’t mean Gluttony didn’t consider it a problem. He genuinely thought you blamed him for what happened.”

“But  _ why! _ ” It was an exclamation, not a question; Pride’s hands flew to his head, balling up in his unstyled mess of hair, “Why would he think that?”

“I can come up with a few reasons,” said Sloth, still in that painfully cautious tone, “First of all, he’s Gluttony. He’s not exactly… the most emotionally competent guy. Second, it wasn’t like you were being… forthcoming with what you were upset about, you were avoiding him. And finally,” here, Sloth’s voice dropped from careful and aloof to dark, their lips drawn back in a grimace, “You did, y’know, literally tell him that you blamed him for it. To his face.”

“We’ve already established I didn’t mean that,” Pride retorted, though it was a weak defense and he knew it, “So that’s not - your third point’s not valid.”

“If you wanna think that, sure,” said Sloth, “But - my point is - just - you can’t blame Gluttony for not being good at reading people when he's never been good at it before. He did want to make things up to you. He really did.”

The truth was, Pride knew that already. He’d seen the way Gluttony had fidgeted, nervous and earnest, as he apologized, had seen the grief on his face when Pride had first rejected it. Pride knew he meant every word he said, and in any other situation, that would have been enough for Pride to forgive him, the only problem was -

“Why did he call me stupid then?” he blurted out before he could think better of it. His breath hitched in his throat, and with a grunt he scrubbed wildly at his face. It was pitiful of him, being so close to tears already. It was so weak. “He - he told me he wanted me to  _ die _ back there in that warehouse, am I - am I really  _ stupid _ for being upset by that?”

The question was sincere in a way Pride hadn’t intended, and shame washed over him immediately. It took all of his willpower not to bury himself into the blanket and disappear completely. For a long moment, Sloth didn’t speak, either because they were gathering their thoughts or because they wanted to give Pride a chance to compose himself. Either way, he appreciated the break from conversation, taking the opportunity to wipe the tears and snot from his face.

“He shouldn’t have done that,” they said after several minutes of silence, “He was in the wrong, and I’m not going to deny that just to try to… make some point to you. He was angry, and hurt, and lashing out,” they stopped, licked their lips, and sighed - a solemn sound, “So you two have that in common, at least.”

When they spoke, their voice was gentle in a way Pride had never associated with Sloth before. It wasn’t an insult, though it easily could have been: it was a reminder. Pride opened his mouth to concede, or perhaps to say thank you, but what came out instead was, “He has to hate me now.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Sloth replied without any hesitation, “He could never hate you. He blames himself for what happened, and he's being an idiot about it. Just tell him it's not his fault. Things'll work out, trust me.”

And despite everything, including his better judgement, Pride did.

**xxx**

Gluttony, more than anyone else on the team, valued his privacy. Despite being the fourth person to join, he was the second to last to move into the hideout full time, and even then, he was known for leaving every once in awhile to spend some nights alone at a motel instead. Sometimes he left because he had a solo contract to fulfill. Sometimes he left because the rest of the team were being a bit too rowdy for him and he wanted some alone time to recharge. And sometimes he left because he’d had an argument with another member, and he needed the space to clear his head.

This was one of those times.

The motel room he ended up in was a shitty one, but that wasn’t anything new. It was a fifteen minute bus ride from the warehouse, but he had walked it - the hour of fresh air had been good for clearing his head. The white hot fury had slowly simmered away, leaving him embarrassed and frustrated. He never should have attempted to apologize to Pride - of course he was wrong about what was upsetting him. Of course Pride would reject his apology. It had been stupid of him to hope otherwise.

By the time he reached the motel, he was both physically and emotionally exhausted, so falling asleep as soon as he laid down was easy enough. The next morning, without anyone else around, the only person Gluttony could be angry with was himself. The self-loathing made the thought of going back impossible, and the longer he stayed away, phone shut off and address unknown, the worse the feeling got. At a certain point, he wasn’t sure if he’d ever get the courage to face the team again.

There wasn’t much to do in the motel room, especially on his own, but Gluttony wasn’t inclined to leave. It was hard for him to keep track of how much time had passed - he usually slept during the day, staying up at the night to eat takeout and watch Jeopardy reruns. It was only once someone finally reached out to him that he realized just how long he’d been gone.

It was a little bit after 1:30AM, and Gluttony was watching a nature documentary on mute while nursing a nearly empty can of Monster energy, when his cellphone rattled violently on the table next to him. The only reason it was turned on was so he could receive text alerts for the pizza he had ordered, but he was fairly certain not enough time had passed for it to be anywhere close to ready. Still, Gluttony plucked his phone off of the bedside table and clicked the screen on to check his notifications - what he saw was, to put it lightly, disappointing.

**from: Envy** ****  
**1:37AM**   
hey r u dead? the teams got a bet going & if ur still alive i win 30 bucks

Without even opening the message, Gluttony all but slammed the phone back down on the bedside table. There was no way he was dealing with that shit this late at night. Turning back to the television, Gluttony took a long swig from his energy drink and silently prayed Envy would get the hint and leave him alone.

About ten minutes later, however, the phone buzzed again - Gluttony crushed the near-empty can in his left hand, and picked the cellphone up with his right.

**from: Envy** ****  
**1:49AM**   
Ok u caught me im sorry there’s no bet we’re actually all just rlly worried about u

Instead of slapping the phone back onto the table, Gluttony sighed and let it drop softly into the blankets on his lap. He didn't want to have to deal with Envy, or Pride, or any of the team, really - he just wanted to continue to be alone. With his food and his cable TV. He was starting to suspect that wasn't going to happen, though.

As if on cue, his phone vibrated yet again in his lap. With another, deeper sigh, Gluttony turned the screen towards himself, opening the message in earnest to finally reply to Envy.

**from: Envy** ****  
**1:55AM**   
please just send like. 1 emoji. so we know ur safe

**to: Envy** ****  
**1:56AM**   
i’m fine.

Gluttony didn't even have time to put the phone back in his lap before it buzzed loudly in his hand. It was tempting to just ignore the new message - put his phone aside, return to his television, maybe grab another can of Monster from the mini fridge he'd stocked full of them - but a nagging voice in the back of his mind stopped him. Maybe Envy was contacting him because something had gone wrong. Maybe the team needed his help. Maybe  _ Pride _ needed his help.

Or maybe it was the pizza place telling him his order was on the way. Either way, he couldn't bring himself to  _ not _ look.

**from: Envy** ****  
**1:56AM**   
OH THANK GOD LMAO anyways wya

**to: Envy** ****  
**1:56AM**   
i’m not telling you.

**from: Envy** ****  
**1:59AM**   
c’mon dude!!!!!!! i have something of urs to give u

_ That _ gave Gluttony pause, his brow furrowing. He wasn't one to have many possessions of personal or financial worth - the only things in his room back at the hideout that he could recall were his clothes, some empty cicada shells he'd collected, his weapons, and his Furbies. What could possibly be so important Envy needed to return it to him right away?

**to: Envy** ****  
**2:00AM**   
wait what

**from: Envy** ****  
**2:02AM**   
it’s a surprise! just tell me where i can meet w/ u to drop it off, ok

With a sigh, Gluttony relented, texting the motel’s address to Envy and then immediately dropping his cellphone into the bedside drawer. He unmuted the television, too, for good measure, as if he could drown out his thoughts as well as Envy’s concern for him. 

The pizza arrived before Envy did, by about ten minutes. Gluttony stood at the bottom of the cheap, metal steps leading up to his floor of the motel, a bottle of soda in one hand and his phone in the other. At 2:16AM, Envy had texted to let him know xe would be there soon, so Gluttony had settled on leaving the majority of the pizza back in his room (sans the one slice he’d managed to eat) while he waited for xer. If all went well, xe would be gone within minutes.

Gluttony expected Envy to show up on xer signature motorbike, so when the team’s designated van - the one Greed usually operated for quick getaways - pulled into the dingy parking lot instead, he was immediately on edge.

“Hey, man!” Envy called out, as xe clambered out of the driver side door - completely empty-handed.

In lieu of a greeting, Gluttony barked back, “Where's my shit?” The cheesy grin on Envy's face dropped away as soon as he spoke.

“Okay, well, the thing about that… is,” Envy fussed with xer hands nervously as Gluttony glared at xer; he had a feeling he knew what xe was about to say even before xe admitted, “That was a lie. I just needed to find you.”

Gluttony didn't bother cursing xer out - though he wanted to,  _ badly _ \- instead turning on his heels and walking right back up the stairs to go back to his motel room. From behind him, he could hear yelling and swearing, as well as the clattering footfalls of Envy running up the steps, and then xe was walking right beside him.

“I came to bring you back to the hideout,” xe said, as if that wasn’t already obvious to Gluttony. As such, he didn’t dignify xer with a response, just a roll of his eyes - xe huffed and tried again, “You need to come home. You need to talk to Pride again.”

“No, actually,” he snapped, right as they reached the first landing. His room was another two floors up, but he didn’t want Envy to know that, so he stopped and turned to xer. “I don’t.”

“If you care about Pride,” Envy barely missed a beat, “You do.”

“And who said I cared about Pride?”

As soon as the words left Gluttony’s mouth, he regretted them. Envy’s expression darkened. “I  _ saw _ how upset you were when we got to that Skull hideout, and you couldn’t get Pride’s bindings off without hurting him,” xe sounded the angriest Gluttony had ever heard xer, “So don’t you dare try to pull that ‘I don’t care’ shit with me.”

With a groan, Gluttony buried his face into his hands, rubbing at his tired eyes. He didn’t need the reminder of how Pride had screamed and cried when he’d tried to break the zip-ties around his wrists. It was just another way he hadn’t been strong, another way he’d failed his whole team. The guilt and the rage still ate away at him, even now, when he  _ knew _ that wasn’t what Pride was so upset about.

Instead of expressing any of that, however, Gluttony lifted his head from his hands and merely said, “I  _ can't  _ talk with him. He’s being too stubborn.”

“Pride is always stubborn,” Envy said with a shake of xer head, but at least xe seemed exasperated now instead of truly mad, “So, I’m sorry, but that’s not a very good excuse.” Since it seemed like all of his counter-arguments were being shot down, Gluttony decided to stay quiet, arms crossed defensively over his chest. Envy seemed satisfied by his silence, as if that meant xe’d won, so when xe asked, “What even happened three weeks ago? When you guys fought?” the frustration had been replaced entirely by a sincere sort of curiosity.

Gluttony had a feeling Envy knew exactly what happened. He also had a feeling xe knew that he knew, and was just asking so Gluttony would have the opportunity to get it off his chest. It might’ve been a sweet sentiment, one Gluttony could be grateful for, if the two of them weren’t stood on a rusty motel balcony at two in the morning. Instead Gluttony was just worn out, desperate to go back to sleep - still, he felt inclined to answer xer.

“I tried to tell him I was sorry,” he ground out, “For not stopping the Skulls from taking us. When I could have - and  _ should _ have, but… He, he told me he wouldn’t accept the apology because what he was actually mad about was - fucking - I lied  _ once _ about being okay with him dying. In order to save his life. Obviously.”

Over the course of Gluttony’s explanation, Envy’s face had gone from questioning to confused to outright bewildered. Xe was squinting up at him, mouth slightly agape and brows raised nearly to xer hairline - a look usually reserved for Pride, when he’d said something especially stupid. Being on the receiving end of that look was never a good sign.

“Okay,” Envy said with a shake of xer whole body, as if xe needed to fully clear xer mind, “Okay. I know that you said it to protect him. But… why would  _ Pride _ know that?”

“Because if I didn’t, they would have tried hurting him more!” Gluttony huffed, “In - in a situation like that, you have to act like you don’t give a shit about yourself, or your friends, or your family, because otherwise your captor has something to gain from killing them. I - I had to say I didn’t care, I had no other choice.”

“Right,” Envy said, sounding extremely put-upon, “I know. But why would  _ he _ know that?”

“Because it’s…” Gluttony let himself trail off as Envy interrupted him with a sigh. Xe was still staring at him as if he were missing something, so instead of arguing, he simply scowled back.

“You were about say 'it's obvious’ again, weren't you?” Xe said - Gluttony dipped his head in a begrudging nod. Envy sighed again with a shake of xer head, and then didn’t say anything for several minutes. Xe was clearly deep in thought, so, despite his steadily growing headache, Gluttony didn’t interrupt. When Envy did finally speak again, xer voice was painstaking, “Okay. Pride knows you really, really well. And I think in…  _ any _ other situation, he would have known you didn’t mean it. He’s good at reading people, most of the time. But,” Envy paused to take a deep breath; xer eyes, which had previously been half-focused as xe thought to xerself, flickered up to meet Gluttony’s head-on, “You also know Pride. You know he worries - a lot - what people think of him, and that he expects people to hurt him, so you - you should have known there was a chance that he didn’t understand. Or at the very least,” xe stopped and scoffed out a tired-sounding laugh, “You shouldn’t have called him  _ stupid  _ once he told you.”

Gluttony opened his mouth to retort, but as Envy’s words started to sink in, he slowly shut it again. The shame and guilt from the past two months came back all at once, then, more potent and real than before.  _ God damn it, _ he thought to himself, and then, aloud - “God  _ fucking _ damn it,” he groaned, dragging his hands through his hair as the realization hit him, “Sloth was right.” They had warned him that his own feelings had messed with his head, made him project onto Pride - and he'd ignored them.

Envy seemed to realize what epiphany he was having, however, and took pity on him, xer face softening as xe breathed a quiet sigh. “To be clear, I don’t… blame you for not realizing what he  _ was _ upset about, Pride can be really weird about his feelings. Plus, I mean,” xe gestured at Gluttony’s body with both hands, “You’re… you, so-,”

“Okay,” Gluttony snapped; he wasn’t offended so much as he was deeply overwhelmed, and thus not in the mood to hear whatever Envy was about to say, “That’s just kind of an insult, not really helping, but… Thanks, I guess.”

“Ugh, you know what I mean!” said Envy with an over-the-top eye roll. Most of the real tension had left xer body and xer voice, however - xe seemed tired, not nervous or angry like xe had been before. “Just - please. Please come back to the hideout. Pride’s upset, and worried about you, and you - I mean, you must be worried about him, too.”

At his sides, Gluttony’s hands balled into fists. Envy was right, of course. Now that Gluttony wasn’t angry at him, all he wanted to do was make sure Pride was alright. Still, something kept him from agreeing to go back right away.

“Apologizing… isn’t easy for me,” he slowly admitted, “So when I told Pride… I mean, I was afraid - or, I just didn't want him to…” he stopped and stifled a noise of frustration, unsure how to say what he was trying to, “He was so upset last time I tried to say sorry, I'm not sure… I don't want that to happen again.”

Despite how ineloquent he was, Envy seemed to understand what he meant. “He's not gonna reject you this time,” xe said with a smile. Xer choice of wording made heat rise to Gluttony's cheeks, but Envy either didn't notice, or politely pretended not to, “In fact I'm pretty sure he's waiting to say sorry to  _ you. _ ”

“F… fine,” Gluttony eventually relented - while Envy had soothed at least some of his worries, the thought of confronting Pride again was uncomfortable at best. Still, he had no good excuses for avoiding Pride left. “Fine, God, you win, I’ll come back with you. I’m going back to my room and finishing my pizza, though.”

Envy gave a surprised laugh, and shook xer head fondly. “Fuck, man, pizza sounds good right now,” xe said, “Can I come with? Grab a few slices?”

“Sure, why not,” Gluttony said after taking a moment to pretend to think about it. Envy laughed again, and Gluttony finally let his hands unclench with a sigh. Things were almost back to normal, and for the first time in a month, Gluttony didn’t feel afraid at the prospect of going home - he felt relieved.

**xxx**

When Gluttony arrived back to the warehouse, it was around 3:30 in the morning, and the first person he ran into was - surprisingly - Wrath. She was sat at the table as Gluttony and Envy went to pass through the kitchen, clearly waiting for them and looking half-asleep. She barely glanced at Envy as xe gave a nod and walked by, disappearing into the hallway that connected the majority of the team’s bedrooms and the living room.

“Hey, Gluttony,” to his surprise, Wrath didn’t sound annoyed or disappointed - in fact, he couldn’t read her voice at all, “It’s good to have you back.”

“It’s, uh,” he faltered, “Good… to be back, and - look,” he stopped and cleared his throat awkwardly. He hadn’t been expecting to have to speak to anyone but Pride, he didn’t have any clue what to say to her, “I - I’m sorry, okay, for disappearing for so-,”

“Don’t bother,” she said with a laugh, effectively stopping his apology in its tracks. When she glanced up at his expression - which was no doubt visibly confused - she laughed again, a little bit louder, “Seriously. It’s fine. I never want anyone on our team to feel like they have to stay here. You can come and go. You don’t have to apologize to  _ me. _ ”

The emphasis in her last sentence made the breath catch in Gluttony’s throat. “Right,” he coughed, and Wrath rolled her eyes, no doubt at his stiffness.

“He’s in his room,” she said; she did not need to clarify who she was talking about, “And he should be up still. He wants to talk to you  _ real _ bad.”

Gluttony wanted to say ‘thank you’, but he wasn’t sure how or for what. He settled for giving her a nod and a clap on the shoulder as he walked by her. He knew Wrath would understand either way.

Pride’s bedroom door was already slightly ajar when he reached it, so he didn’t have to knock. He nudged it open gently with his shoulder and peered inside - Pride was a light sleeper, so Gluttony wanted to double-check he was awake before barging in. From the doorway, Gluttony could see Pride’s hunched silhouette clearly, pale face illuminated by his phone. He could also see how worse for wear Pride looked, even from far away: his hair was a mess of tangles, his eyes surrounded by dark circles.

“Um,” said Gluttony, rapping his knuckles against the doorframe as softly as he could. Pride still jumped, of course, but there wasn’t any panic in his eyes - a small victory. “Hey there. Wrath, uh… Wrath said you wanted to talk?”

For a long moment, Pride didn’t speak, just blinked at Gluttony as if he wasn’t sure he were real. As Gluttony walked further into the room, and closer to Pride and his bed, it became apparent how long Pride had gone without any real sleep. His eyes were bloodshot, his hair was limp and unwashed, and his hands - clutching his phone tightly - were trembling, though that could easily be due to nerves.

A fresh wave of embarrassment hit Gluttony - maybe Pride was still too upset for this conversation. Maybe he should have waited until morning to do this, or not come at all. “If - if you’d rather we, uh, talk tomorrow,” he backpedalled immediately, “I - I can leave, you can sleep-,”

“No!” Pride blurted out, and then, as if remembering what time of night it was, smacked a hand over his mouth. An uncomfortable beat passed, and then he lowered his hand and continued in a much quieter tone, “No, no, I need to tell you. Now. I need to say this now, um…”

He took a deep breath as if to steady himself, and as he exhaled, all of his words came out in an anxious rush. “I - I  _ know _ it’s not your fault we got kidnapped, okay, I don’t blame you, like, at all,” he muttered; Gluttony knew him well enough to know the words were sincere, “And I know the kidnapping... hurt you, just as much as it hurt me, I was just - I was angry. And stupid. And I shouldn’t have,” his voice wavered dangerously and he had to stop to take a shaky breath, “I shouldn’t have said any of that to you. I’m sorry.”

Gluttony wasn’t sure what he had expected Pride to say, but it hadn’t been this. Envy had mentioned that he wanted to apologize, back at the motel, but he had somewhat figured xe’d been lying to ease his anxiety so he’d be more willing to come back with xer. That Pride was actually saying sorry - something that he’d seldom done over the many years they’d been together as a team - stunned Gluttony. Everything he’d been prepared to say had just gone out the window.

To Pride, however, his speechlessness must have read as anger, because after a moment of silence between the two he started stammering again. “That’s, uh, that’s all I wanted to say,” he said, staring at where his hands were clawing tightly at his comforter, “You - you can go-,”

“Wait,” Gluttony said without thinking about it, “Wait, no, I need to stay, I need to say, um…” Pride looked startled by Gluttony’s interruption; frankly, Gluttony was surprised, too, but he plowed on, “First of all, it’s - I mean, thank you. It’s alright.”

Gluttony knew it was a clumsy way to accept an apology and couldn’t help but grimace at his own awkwardness. Pride didn’t seem to mind, however, still looking up at Gluttony with wide, glassy eyes. Gluttony couldn’t bring himself to meet Pride’s eyes for what he wanted to say next, so he took in a shaky breath and lowered his head, staring down to his feet instead.

“Also, I’m… I’m sorry for not realizing that what I did - or, no, not realizing what you were upset about, and I’m sorry,” he said, slow and stumbling, without once lifting his gaze from the bedroom floor, “I could… I should have told you sooner. That I didn’t mean anything that I said when we were… y’know. And I shouldn’t have yelled at you last time we spoke, either,” Gluttony paused to swallow around the lump in his throat. He didn’t dare to speak for nearly half a minute, and once he did find his voice again, he said each word slow and soft. “I would never… let somebody hurt you if I could stop it. I mean that.”

There was a beat of silence, and then the unmistakable sound of stifled crying made Gluttony’s head snap up. Pride’s face was tight with pain, the back of one hand pressed to his lips and nose, eyes brimming with tears he was clearly trying to keep from falling. Panic made Gluttony’s blood run cold in his veins - the only time Pride ever held back tears was when he was deeply upset.

“Shit -  _ shit _ , did I say something wrong again?” he said, tensing up as if preparing to leave, if that was what Pride wanted, “I’m sorry, uh, I’m -,”

“I’m not crying,” Pride sobbed, “I’m not - I’m - it’s  _ good  _ crying, okay, I’m just so relieved, I thought you  _ hated _ me.”

The way Pride said it, voice breaking on the word  _ hate _ , made something in Gluttony’s chest clench painfully. “No, oh my God,” he said, a little desperately, “Not at all, I mean - I like you. A lot.”

The words, graceless as they were, did nothing to calm Pride down. On the contrary, his breathing hitched as he choked out a noise somewhere between a sob and a laugh. “Okay, good,” he scrubbed futilely at the tears and snot on his face, “Because I - I really like you too, I don’t want you to hate me, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s - it’s fine, you’re fine,” Gluttony tried to reassure him, but Pride didn’t seem to be paying much attention. When Gluttony realized using his words was a lost cause, he took a half step forwards and began to raise his arms. Before he could even get close to touching Pride, however, there was a flurry of movement, and then Pride was on his feet and nearly bowling him over. His face found Gluttony’s shoulder instantly, buried into the crook of his neck, arms like a vice grip around his back. 

The hug knocked Gluttony off-balance, both figuratively and literally, but he didn’t have to hesitate long at all before returning it. He could feel himself trembling, just a little bit, as he held Pride, but he could also tell there was no way Pride could feel it through the sobs wracking his body.

“You’re okay,” said Gluttony, mostly to Pride, but somewhat to himself as well, “It’s okay now.”

**xxx**

The first thing Pride wanted to do when he and Gluttony awoke the next morning was clean himself up. They’d fallen asleep together sometime after four, curled up in Pride’s too-small bed, and didn’t get up until close to one in the afternoon. Gluttony woke up first, to the sensation of pins and needles in his right arm - Pride was sprawled on top of his entire shoulder, cutting off any potential blood flow. Turning his head the other way to squint at the Hello Kitty alarm clock on Pride’s bedside table, Gluttony couldn’t help but notice the stain of snot on the front of his shirt. As the specific events of the previous night came back to him, Gluttony figured he should have been annoyed, or at least grossed out, but he couldn’t honestly bring himself to care.

For awhile he was content to just stay like that, Pride curled up and dozing at his side, but eventually the discomfort of not being able to feel his arm became too much. With a huff, he started working on wiggling his arm out from under Pride - it wasn’t too tricky, Pride wasn’t particularly heavy, but the movement inevitably woke him up.

“What’s…” mumbled Pride, as he cracked his eyes open. Even through his bleary morning vision, he must have noticed Gluttony sitting upright, fully conscious; he shook his head as that would wake him up faster and said, only somewhat more coherently, “Are we gettin’ up now?”

“I am,” Gluttony said as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and stretched until his shoulders gave a satisfactory  _ crack _ , “But you can go back to sleep.”

From behind him, Pride grumbled to himself incomprehensibly; Gluttony could hear the blankets shuffling and the bed creaking as he sat up, too. “No, no, I’m ready to get up,” Pride said, though he was still slurring his words just a little bit, “I’m - ugh, I feel  _ so _ nasty, I need to shower. I need to put on some makeup, I need - fuck, I need to redye my  _ hair _ .”

Pride’s voice, saccharine and dramatic even when he was still just waking up, was painfully familiar. Gluttony hadn’t realized how badly he had missed  _ this _ , and the relief of finally being back at the warehouse, brought a small smile to his face, though Pride couldn’t see it.

“Alright, well, I’ll leave you to it, then,” said Gluttony as he started to stand - Pride always preferred a little bit of privacy when he was getting dressed - but a hand tugging at the back of his shirt stopped him.

“Wait,” Pride said, and for a moment Gluttony’s heart skipped a beat - was Pride still upset? Was there something he still needed to fix? - until Pride continued, with an over-the-top groan, “I am so  _ sick  _ of being in this bedroom. Meet me in the living room in about twenty minutes, okay? I’m gonna shower, we can hang out while I put some makeup on, and then - could you drive me to the beauty supply store for some more hair dye?”

Gluttony agreed to it, because of  _ course _ he did, and that was how he found himself thirty-five minutes later, Pride curled up on his lap in the living room, peering into a makeup compact mirror while Gluttony watched cooking tutorials on his phone. His head was perched on Pride’s shoulder - his shirt was a little damp at the collar from his shower, but Gluttony didn’t mind - and from the corner of his eye he could see the living room door open.

"You two look... cozy," Envy said with a laugh, leaning against the door frame instead of coming any closer, as if xe was afraid to interrupt. Pride made a noise in greeting, too wrapped up in... whatever he was doing to say 'hello', and Gluttony figured that was good enough for the both of them. "What're you up to?"

"I'm trying to do the _perfect_ cut-crease," Pride said, after another moment of quiet concentration, "I'm not really sure what Gluttony's doing!"

Without even glancing up from his phone screen, Gluttony said, "I'm learning how to make eggs Florentine."

Envy let out a laugh, and when Gluttony let his eyes flicker over to xer, he could see xer shaking xer head fondly. "That sounds about right," xe said, "God, it's like Gluttony never even left."

When Pride giggled in response, Gluttony could feel it rumble in his chest, his shoulders bobbing slightly. The sensation was a greater comfort than Gluttony would ever openly admit, and with a sigh, he let his eyes slide half-shut. Pride continued laughing, and then stopped to breathlessly curse about how the laughter had made his hands shake and ruined what he'd been doing; a moment later, the sofa dipped as Envy came to sit at Gluttony's side, offering advice and condolences. The two continued talking about - something makeup related, something Gluttony had no hopes of understanding - but it was easy to tune them out, a pleasant and familiar background noise. For the first time in a long time, Gluttony felt like he was finally, _finally_ back home; when he sighed again, leaning back into the couch cushions, Pride shifted with him, a warm and constant weight against Gluttony's chest.


End file.
